This run is not challenging enough.. Can I run it backwards?

So here’s the race report, pictures and all, including no official finish time, since I didn’t get timed. Good to know though, looking back if I would have ran the half I would have won my age group. Wha-Wha… Anyways, oh well, what can you do. I decided race morning to limit myself to the 5k, because I had looked at the course (shocking!) and knew that it was a a giant loop. Once I was seven miles out, I was seven miles out and had to finish to come back to the car. I knew I could probably run a solid seven miles, but a half marathon doesn’t end at seven miles and after that who knows what would have happened. Don’t get me wrong, I REALLY wanted to run the 1/2, but I knew that I would be dealing with being sick for a lot longer if I did run it, and I was already over the whole being sick thing and wanted to feel better asap.

I also know I am uber competitive. This would have been disastrous and probably would have ended in me pushing myself WAY to hard and getting even more sick, missing more days of work, being sick in Hawaii, the list goes on. So I 5ked it up, and even that was out of control for me. I decided not to bring Claude so I wouldn’t be checking my splits and super worried about my time and just have a good solid run. We set off and I was with the back of the pack because started with my cousins and I also like working my way up through the pack. Stupid, but whatever, don’t judge me, I was on medication.

We take off and the course for the first mile and a half is on a paved neighborhood like street. I race through the crowds zigging and zagging my way around people. I was the one who held onto the car key because I was going to finish the race first and it was going to be cold so I wanted to wait in the car for a while. I tucked the key in my shorts like so.

I was feeling great and thought to myself, “Well three miles is good for me to do, and it’s not too long so I will have to run it fast since usually I wait way to long to pick up my speed because I dilly dally around and then the race is over.” I shot out of there like a rocket. Probably about 3/4 of a mile down the paved road I reached down to feel for the key. IT WAS GONE. I literally stopped in my tracks and tried to remember who had the key because before the race we were going back and forth with who was going to hold on it. I PROMISED I wouldn’t lose it, but I couldn’t remember it I had actually left with it. I turned around and jogged back scanning the crowd for my cousin to ask her if she or her sister had it, or if it, gulp, was me.

I jogged around people dodging them and getting the strangest looks ever. I thought to myself that people could just think that I was out for a run and not expecting the race to be happening but then I realized that I was wearing a bib number to totally give me away. I was scanning the ground walking with my head down against the crowd and looking for my cousin all at the same time. I saw her and started screaming her name, but then alas, her ipod was in so I had to weave through the crowd to get her attention. I caught up to her and asked her about the key. She told me that she thought my other cousin had it and my heart kind of leaped. I didn’t lose it! My cousin had it! I then started to go further back to find her and make sure she had the key.

Weaving, still looking for a key, I finally found her at the back of the pack and asked her about the key. Instantly her face said it all. I HAD THE KEY, not her. I lost it. So then I traveled further back to find the key on the road. YUP, I had been passed by ALL the walkers and runners at this point. I was jogging my way back to the starting line, my head down and scanning the street for anything that looked liked a key. This was when all the zigging and zagging was coming back to haunt me, when I noticed something black laying on the pavement up ahead of me. I ran to it and scooped it up off the ground; the key was found! I was in very last place! So many great things happening at once!

I then turned around, key in hand and started running fast again. I quickly caught up to the crowd of walkers and joggers in the back and made my way all the way back through the crowd. I remember when I left the pack, I was behind a guy with a shirt that said SAVE THE DRAGON, in reference to the nearby lake since it looked like a dragon. I wanted to catch up to him. I worked my butt off the remainder of the race to pass people and get back up to where I left off. I passed my first cousin, and showed her the key with a big smile! I then made it my sincere vow to pass my next cousin. I looked and looked for her and then all of a sudden I was right next to her. I passed by her and showed her the key too, she looked relieved.

As I passed the 2nd mile, a dual stroller pushing dad wearing a SuperDad shirt was giving his baby in the stroller a new bottle and making sure the other baby was holding on to his blanket. I thought DANG DAD YOU ARE LEGIT, and I passed him, and smiled. I then realized it was roughly eight more minutes to the finish line for me. So I kicked it into high gear. I had no idea what my time was, I wasn’t wearing a watch, I don’t know how far I ran. It was then when I truly regretted leaving my poor Claude in the car. The last mile was on some rolling hills and I love me some rolling hills. A lot of the runners I were around were guys and I could tell they were wondering where I came from, and they were sad to get chicked. Then I saw him, SAVE THE DRAGON MAN! I passed him by and before I knew it I saw the Purple and Yellow Start/Finish line. Right when I saw that my ipod got really lose and flapped down by my wrist. So I held onto that with one hand, had my headphone cord flying all over the place and held onto the key tightly in the other hand. I was a mess.

I finished by a guy who was running and then decided that he didn’t want to get chicked by me as I started to pass him. His wife yelled for him to sprint at the end! Bummer dude, because he got big time chicked. I think my finishing time was right around 27:05. Who knows what was going on there. I didn’t get the official time because I signed up for the half marathon and they didn’t time me. I even asked the person handing out the wine glasses for the half marathon after if I could have one since I signed up for it but got sick and limited myself to the 5k. She snapped back at me that no they were only for the FINISHERS OF THE HALF MARATHON. Yea, got that lady, pretty sure you didn’t want me to barf on you as I finished my 1/2 so you should be thankful I didn’t make an attempt.

The 5k course was overall pretty much the best course for my liking, not too hilly, but still some smaller hills and paved with a little dirt and you can see the finish line from a little bit away, so you know it’s coming. If I was in tip top shape I would have loved to run it hard and I would have loved to run the 1/2, but some things are not meant to be. Both my cousins PR’ed and I succeeded in getting the worst 5k time of my entire life. Score one for the Chic Runner.

This is a reenactment of what the key might have done… Slipped out the bottom of my shorts. Fail.

As you can see it was a really pretty area, but this is my thumbs down for my race time.

My cousins and I after the race, happy to be done with the 5k for sure.

So yes, the race was completed, I didn’t have Claude the one time I really needed him, but I did find the key, so all in all a success. I am going to go for a run tomorrow and get my training plan back on track because I have definitely not been on track because of this sickness. I have to get working on my mileage again so that I can continue to train for my full marathon at the end of May.

Hope you enjoyed the debacle.

xoxo

PS oh by the way (congrats on making it this far down the post…, tomorrow I’m having a GIVEAWAY!!! Be sure to lurk by then! :)

[…] to run a half marathon in March, but had a crazy cough so I opted out and ran the 5k instead in the Wine Country 5k in Paso Robles. I was an idiot and lost the key to the car and had to loop back around mid-race to […]

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